Darryk Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 City's just going to win 20 games in a row and overtake everyone again, aren't they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 19 minutes ago, polishgenius said: Who exactly is gonna be consistent enough to overtake you? I don’t know but if we keep losing and playing this poorly, does it matter who’s consistent? All of us fighting for 4 will be in same boat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Darryk said: City's just going to win 20 games in a row and overtake everyone again, aren't they? Liverpool were always by far the most likely team to challenge City. And they are still getting results even in games where they don't play particularly well which is something that none of the other potential challengers are capable of doing to any significant degree. They're also proven to have the stomach for a tight title race which is another thing the other potential challengers lack. Edited December 31, 2023 by Consigliere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 29 minutes ago, Consigliere said: Liverpool were always by far the most likely team to challenge City. And they are still getting results even in games where they don't play particularly well which is something that none of the other potential challengers are capable of doing to any significant degree. They're also proven to have the stomach for a tight title race which is another thing the other potential challengers lack. And they have Klopp. Who is easily the most important person in taking it to City, more than peak VVD or Salah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 (edited) Liverpool have had an excellent first half of the season and considering the midfield rebuild in the summer it's well beyond expectations but there's a couple of problems for us as realistic title contenders. Firstly as previously noted Salah going to AFCON and secondly, although the midfield has done well, it's very Klopp at Liverpool 1.0 heavy metal football so far without a lot of control of games. It's fun and mostly working to this point but it feels like Liverpool have to put a lot of effort into picking up wins, if City find some form I'd be worried about fatigue kicking in for Liverpool. Edited December 31, 2023 by ljkeane Iskaral Pust and The Winged Shadow 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Liverpool have managed to cope before with Mane and Salah going to AFCON. Losing Salah is a loss but Liverpool do have good options in attack. Liverpool have been a bit open this season but having Alisson in goal mitigates that significantly - he's arguably the best shot-stopper in the league and inarguably the best GK in the league when it comes to 1v1s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 Oh, just checked the results, Arsenal managed to lose against Fulham? How? Why? Safe to say gooners will not win the league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Liverpool are doing better than expected so far with a MF rebuild and several injury absences but they’re not clinical enough in attack, which has led to draws in tight games. The lack of a true DM leaves us open to counterattacks but, in fairness, we concede more fan heart attacks than actual goals. There has been a protracted pattern of conceding the first goal, which means lots of energy expended to chase games. Fatigue will be a key factor in the second half of the season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 I confess I am petty and egotistical enough to derive satisfaction from seeing a few Arsenal fans tearing into Rice on twitter because he doesn't pass like Partey and Xhaka. As unfair as that is to Rice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Assuming those are even real <insert name of club> fans instead of trolls or bots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 At least some of them are, as far as I can tell. I mean, the ones just slagging off Rice are obviously a bit arseholey but it's not an invalid point - he doesn't pass like those two. His progressive passing at West Ham was always built around pass-and-moving box to box and he's being asked not to do that so much. He's also, it turns out, not that great at passing on the turn so he drops deeper than those two would to get the ball off the CBs. Arteta, and to date, most of the Arsenal fans have seen that as a worthwhile exchange for the increased defensive cover, and that he's provided that is inarguable. And when everything's ticking that's pretty much true. But when it's not ticking they're either overrelying on Havertz (or whoever's in the role) to do all of the linking midfield work which I still don't think he's a natural fit for, or asking Odegaard to drop deeper himself to get it, which limits him as well. Some of that may well be observation bias by me since I assumed this exact problem was gonna come up when they made those transfers so I'm probably over-emphasising it when it happens, but then that's why seeing Arsenal fans moan about it is an ego-boost for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 Well, the funny thing about that is, the amount of shit by Arsenal fans Xhaka had to take over the years. But yeah, I would also think, that the upgrade in defensive staility is worth the trade off. But I think Rice isn't really the Xhaka replacement, he is there to replace a certain other Arsenal midfielder, who should've been suspended by the club last season. Havertz in the Xhaka role was/is Artetas idea. I think he can play that role perfectly fine. Ofc Havertz is a more advanced midfielder than Xhaka, but I don't think he is that awkward a fit for it either. If they want a deeper link up player in midfield, they still have Jorginho on the team, don't they Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Corvinus85 and baxus 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 (edited) Jorginho has been hurt too. The system right now isn’t working and the wingers are massively out of form. We’ve had like 6 xg in last few games and have scored just 1 from it. Been a brutal stretch. Won’t win much if you don’t score goals. Rice is limited as a through the lines passer (which I’m ok with at this stage because he’s an absolute baller at getting the ball back cleanly) and Partey is massively missed because that’s his best attribute. Xhaka was good at receiving, turning and pushing ball forward which Havertz hasn’t been good at yet. Those are issues. Odegaard has been dropping deeper in the xhaka role of last year and it has worked great, he’s been awesome, but the players in front of him have bottled every big chance he has created. Saw a 4 minute compilation yesterday of Odegaard master class that was missed and it made me sad. Then I saw those positions intermixed with last year where we scored. That made me really sad. Just a brutal season where we lack confidence, energy and fluidity. The injuries also haven’t helped. Fun fact, Raya has yet to have a clean sheet when having more than one shot on target in a game. It hasn’t helped that his fullbacks are playing with injuries and the replacements are injured. Teams are all taking their minimal half / big chances against us while we miss over and over and over. Hasn’t been a fun few weeks as a fan. And yet we are only 2-5 pts off top of table and don’t play again in league for 3 weeks. I got a little hope but not much. Edited January 1 by Mexal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Arsenal were in a tough position over the summer trying to go from an 84 points a season very good team to an around 90 points excellent team. It's hard to make easy improvements at that level. What Arteta and Edu clearly decided was they needed to be more solid after the drop off last year and, leaving aside a fairly poor defensive performance against Fulham, they've achieved that. It's just there's a corresponding drop off in their attacking production. Here's an article from the end of November laying out the changes from last year in their defensive and attacking stats quite well. although it might be a bit too optimistic about how well placed they were. Maybe there needs to be a bit of a reassessment of how much risk they're willing to take in attack to balance that solidity with attacking production. Rice isn't the most incisive of passers but he can break the lines as an attacking player, he just tends to do it as a ball carrier rather than a passer. There's a risk to doing that but perhaps it's something they need to do more often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Last year, one of the major reasons Arsenal were good early was Partey. One of the reasons they fell off was Partey getting hurt then losing form. His profile is a huge need in the way Arteta wants to play. Just watch him come off the bench against City and what he managed to do. Not having him for most of the season has been a major hurt, even if it’s for the last 30 minutes as we push for a result. Arteta wanted to play him with Rice, not Rice instead of and that hasn’t really worked out. The other thing Arteta did was get Timber who had shown all of Zinchenkos technical ability but with the defensive solidity of Tomiyasu. He was exactly what Arteta wanted to upgrade the side and we saw that promise during the preseason. He tore his ACL in first game. Then Zinchenko got hurt, then Tomiyasu. And that Tomi injury has affected White because he’s playing with an injury, doesn’t have the same energy and is slower on his overlaps than last season which was so crucial to freeing up Saka to cut in. This has really hurt that right side. Anyway, I can see what Arteta wanted to do but it hasn’t really worked. January won’t bring in anything that will truly make a difference so we will need another big summer. And we will need to sell our academy players to get some pure profit to make these purchases. We have a good core, just still missing some pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 It's just an expensive way to find out that Kobbie Mainoo is the best deep midfielder in the league, is all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Just now, polishgenius said: It's just an expensive way to find out that Kobbie Mainoo is the best deep midfielder in the league, is all. Such is life. We don’t have polish running our transfers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 56 minutes ago, polishgenius said: It's just an expensive way to find out that Kobbie Mainoo is the best deep midfielder in the league, is all. What happened to JWP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 1 hour ago, Mexal said: Such is life. We don’t have polish running our transfers. That Le Fee/Ward-Prowse/Odegaard midfield would bang. 14 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said: What happened to JWP? See above. Mainoo is not for sale. In seriousness though how embarrassing is it that he's the only midfielder in our entire squad who understands that when a team is breaking in the wide areas, someone in midfield has to track runners from theirs. Both Forests goals came from failing to do that, after he came off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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